LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, jf 




UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE EEBELLION IN INDIA. 

THE WONDROUS TALE OF THE 
GREASED CARTRIDGES. 



BY D. URQUHART. 



LONDON : 



BRYCE, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW. 



it i 



THE WONDROUS TALE OF THE GREASED 
CARTRIDGES. 



THE ROCHDALE COMMITTEE TO ME. URQUHART. 

August 14, 1857. 
Sir, — We would be much obliged to you, if you would give us an 
answer on the three following points. First, what the cartridge 
affair positively amounts to. Secondly, how the rebellion in India 
will affect us. Thirdly, what can be done in the sense of the resolu- 
tion adopted at the meeting last night, i.e., how we can control the 
acts of our rulers ? 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

ABRAHAM GREENWOOD, Secretary. 

REPLY. 

Rockdale, August 14th. 
Sir, — Your three questions are of the utmost importance, and I 
shall endeavour to give to them the briefest answer compatible with 
clearness. 

1. The Cartridges. — The discussion has turned upon the 
composition of the grease and of the paper — that is not the point. 
You are aware, by the statement laid before you last night, that it 
was impossible for the Hindus to place between their lips the 
composition served out ; the very idea could not be for a moment 
entertained. But there was no objection whatever to the mere use 
of these same cartridges for loading their muskets if allowed to tear 
them. The point then upon which the Indian rebellion hinged, was 
tearing or biting the cartridge. 

It was not necessary that the cartridges should be bitten. The 
object of biting the cartridges had disappeared with the introduc- 
tion of the new weapon, for which they were served out. 

With the old musket priming had to be used ; that priming was 
taken from the cartridge before it was introduced into the barrel. 
Whilst priming, the soldier had only one hand free — that which held 
the cartridge ; the other, the left hand, being employed in supporting 
the musket. It was, therefore, impossible for him to use that hand 
to tear the cartridge open, and he was constrained to have recourse 
to his teeth ; a very foul operation it was, even when no. grease was 



4 

employed, and by which the men were made sick even on a field day. 
The new weapon requires no priming from the cartridge — a 
percussion cap is used. The cartridge is not handled until after the 
musket has been primed and brought to the ground ; his left hand 
holds the muzzle of the musket, when with his right, he takes the 
cartridge from his pouch ; consequently he can use the fingers of his 
left to tear it, before introducing it into the musket. The priming 
by means of the cap, thus wholly obviates the filthy operation of 
biting, a matter of no small importance, seeing that the greasing of 
the new cartridges renders them so much more loathsome than the 
old ones. 

This, you will observe, is without reference to the religious tenets 
of the men, and it is difficult to imagine how, for European troops, 
the introduction of the Enfield rifle was not accompanied by an 
alteration, in this respect, of the manual exercise. 

When these cartridges were sent out to India, the sentiments of 
the Hindus regarding them were not overlooked. These were so 
well known that a warning was transmitted from the military 
authorities at home to those in India, not to serve out the Enfield 
cartridges to the native troops ; as we are informed by Major- 
General Tucker. This occurred in 1853, so that during three years 
this instruction had been acted on. 

In the papers which have appeared in consequence of the outbreak, 
the first announcement made, is of a state of apprehension regarding 
these very cartridges. The General in command at Barrackpore 
recommends the immediate adoption of measures to allay it, such as 
the allowing the men to procure their own grease: the introduc- 
tion of a new platoon exercise, by which the cartridge shall be torn, 
not bitten, and until such course shall be adopted, the stopping 
short in the exercise before loading. General Hearsey, who with 
Mr. Colvin, seems the only man who did not lose his head, never 
for a moment contemplates any other course as possible than that of 
removing the ground of complaint, even to the very suspicion. The 
Governor-General in Council entirely bears out the view of the 
General. On the 17th of February, the men are allowed to apply 
the grease, and on the 6th of March, the new platoon exercise passes 
the Council. Here, then, closes, in due course, the cartridge 
episode, and the Indian army is restored to its normal condition of 
tranquility and loyalty, for which it has ever been distinguished from 
all other forces not national, and from the larger portion of these; 
political reasons have never agitated even their minds, and on no 
occasion has there occurred the slightest insubordination, save on 
some rare occasion of withheld-pay, or interference with their 
religious habits. 



5 



The misfortune, however, is, that the conduct of the Government 
did not agree with its Resolutions. General Hearsey' s suggestion 
was made on the 23rd January. On the 11th February, he enforces 
it by the declaration that they stood ""on a mine ready to explode." 
The order, closing the question, issued on the 17th February, yet 
on the 25th of February, the 19th Eegiment refused the percussion 
caps, because the order of the 17th of the same month did not exist 
for them. 

The revolt of the Oude contingent at Lucknow was occasioned on 
the 2nd May, or seventy-two days after the order to use their own 
grease, and fifty-seven days after the regulation dispensing with the 
biting of cartridges. Between Lucknow and Calcutta there is a 
telegraph; it must therefore be inferred that what was done by the 
subordinates was enjoined by the principals, and that the orders were 
intended to show to the people of England how treacherous was the 
Sepoy, and how prompt and careful the Indian Government.* 

This view, awful as it is, is not without collateral confirmation. 

No inquiry was instituted into the disregard of the recommenda- 
tion of the late Commander-in-Chief at home, as to the issuing to 
the Sepoys, of the greased cartridges. t 

The inquiry into the conduct of Colonel Mitchell was not insti- 
tuted until after the 19th had been punished, for an act which the 
very fact of the inquiry, proves to have been connected with his 
conduct. 

The inquiry into the conduct of Colonel TTheler was not insti- 
tuted until after the disbanding of the companies of the 34th under 
s imil ar circumstances. It was after the disbanded men of those two 
regiments reached the neighbourhood of the cantonments, that the 
successive mutinies exploded. + 

Complaint being received from General Hearsey, that without his 

* Such is exactly the use the Times has made of " the mutinies in the east 
ixdies,'' and all the public knows or can know of these documents is what appears 
in the Times. 

t " I do not presume to say with whom, specifically, the blame of this most cul- 
pable neglect may rest, — only investigation can settle that point, — but I conceive 
that either the Military Secretary or the officer presiding in chief over the 
Ordnance department in Calcutta is, one or both, the party implicated. 

" My humble opinion is that the Government of India should have insisted on 
knowing with whom rested the blame of the grave errors committed. 

"A search in the Military Secretary's office will, without doubt, bring to light 
the neglected recommendation of the late Commander-in-chief." —Major -General 
Tucker. 

% " The country swarms with bauds of the 19th and 34th." — Telegraphic Message 
from Benares, May ]0th. 



6 



knowledge the officer in command of the wing of the 53rd, stationed 
at Durn Duni, had issued balled cartridges, on the ground that 
a mutiny had broken out among the Sepoys at Barrackpore, the 
Secretary-General writes to the Town Major to know by whom the 
said orders had been given. The Town Major replies, that he does 
not know, and writes to Major Clarke (commanding the 53rd) who 
replies evasively. The Governor- General insists on an explicit- 
answer. The Town Major again applies to Major Clarke, who, thus 
pressed, replies, " I received the order from yotj" On this the 
matter drops. (No act could be better calculated to insure the 
mutiny so announced beforehand. The letters as published are so 
disarranged that it is difficult to follow them in the Parliamentary 
papers ; I have, therefore, had them copied in order, and enclose 
them. — Enclosure No. 1.) 

To the proposed inquiry by the Governor-General into the circum- 
stances under which the Oude contingent "refused to bite the 
cartridges," no answer appears to have been given, and no notice 
taken, either of the Minute or of the Despatch founded thereon. 
(Extracts illustrating this point are also enclosed. — Enclosure 
No. 2.) 

In the graver of these cases, and especially in the last, there was 
no inquiry to be instituted into "the chcunistances.'" The an- 
nouncement of the event was the information, that the orders of the 
Governor- General had been disobeyed. The following is the order 
communicated by telegraph on the 17th of Eebfojafy, or nine days 
previous to the first act bf insubordination : — 

"That all cartridges are to be issued free of grease, and the Sepoys are tote 
allowed to apply with their own hands whatever mixture suited to the purpose, they 
may prefer." 

The natural and necessary course of business was to reprimand or 
otherwise punish the officer who had infringed the order or not com- 
plied with it. But so far from this, the Governor-General never 
refers to his own order, unless incidentally to suppose reasons for 
its neglect. 

It follows, that the Sepoys were perfectly justified in refusing to 
obev orders of then commanding officer : first, because these orders 
were in contravention of the orders of the Governor-General j 
secondly, because the engagement of the Sepoy extended only to 
service not involving, generally, infraction of his religious duties, 
and especially, violation of caste ; thirdly, because the word of the 
Government was pledged to this effect, as conveyed by the sub- 
joined extract from General Hearsey. 



7 



" By introducing this new mode of drill, namely, breaking the cartridge witfrthe 
hand instead of biting it, all discontent or uneasy feeling in regard to their caste and 
prejudices on that account, will be, or ought to be effectually removed ; we shall thus 
be keeping our word with the Sepoys, and at the same time, introducing a better plan 
of loading, with reference to their religious scruples." Major-General Hearsey, 

March 5th. 

Now, as to the Hindu point of view. One effect of biting a 
cartridge containing fat of kine, is disinheritance. No outcast can 
inherit property. This, however, is a British as well as a Hindu 
view, for it is enacted by 21st George III. c. 70, "that inheritances 
in the case of Gentoos (Hindus) shall be determined by the Laws 
and Usages of Gentoos." Another effect is excommunication, such 
as formerly was practised among Christians, only carried to a point of 
infinitely greater severity. Intercourse of a Sepoy so circumstanced, 
with Ids wife, is visited according to Hindu law, by mutilation and 
death. 

The stain so inflicted is capable of removal only by a series of 
penances, crowned by passing over a mass of red-hot charcoal vehe- 
mently fanned, nine yards square, and nine inches deep ; this 
purgation can be effected only on one day of the year. You will thus 
perceive, that there can be nothing more immediately or directly 
effectual for the fall of an Indian Empire, than the use of greased 
cartridges. You will hereafter learn, that the injunctions of the 
late Commander-in-Chief not to issue the greased cartridges have 
been obeyed in regard to the Bombay and Madras armies : it not 
being the purpose of those who planned the Bengal mutiny, that it 
should extend to the other two Presidencies. 

I conclude this branch by calling your most serious attention to 
the subjoined statement of the case by the ex-Chairman of the East 
India Company, made in the House of Commons on Tuesday last 
(11th August). These are the only words that are true — the only 
words not atrocious, which have been uttered in the House of 
Commons. Colonel Sykes indeed assumes that the Sepoys laboured 
under a delusion (or at least is constrained to feign it) . You, after 
perusing the extracts I give, will understand the value of that 
assumption : — 

" There had been no outbreak against the Government during that period (100 
years). On the contrary, those men had fought in a hundred battles and gained 
us a hundred victories, always showing the utmost readiness to support the honour 
of the British arms. Now, if there had been any frantic delusion like the present, 
which had run like wild-fire from station to station, a mutiny might have occurred 
at any time during those 100 years. The Sepoys believed that an attack was 
being made on their religion — a belief entirely unreasonable; but in such a case 
it was utterly impossible to apply the rules of reason. The proof that there 



s 



existed no previous combination among the Sepoys was that the mutiny crept so 
slowly from station to station. Thus, so far back as the 26th of February, the 
19th Regiment at Berhampore refused to use the cartridges, and was disbanded 
at Barrackpore on the 31st of March. The men, too, did not rise against their 
officers. They said, " We will go to any part of the world against an enemy, but 
we cannot lose our caste." Hon. gentlemen acquainted with the history of the 
middle ages would know what was the meaning of excommunication. When the 
Pope excommunicated an Emperor he could not find one of his subjects even to 
do a menial office for him ; and loss of caste operated in much the same way in 
India. Every Sepoy who put one of the greased cartridges into his mouth became 
a degraded being in the eyes of his fellows ; his own mother could not touch him, 
nor his father or brother sit with him. Was it to be wondered, then, if the Sepoys 
would far rather brave death than submit to such degradation ? Would they 
have lifted up their hands against their officers at Meerut had common forbear- 
ance been exhibited towards them, or if a thorough knowlege of the native cha- 
racter had been possessed by the authorities there? The facts were these: — The 
skirmishers of the 3rd Cavalry, one of the finest regiments in the Bengal army, 
were ordered to parade, and use these cartridges, which they were assured were 
harmless. This, however, the men did not believe ; and they begged their native 
officers to go to their European superiors and ask that the matter should not be 
forced to a crisis. Their wishes were acceded to in the first instance, but the 
better feeling of the officer in command was overruled by another officer of the 
regiment, who said, " If you give way the men will say you are afraid of them." 
The parade was then ordered. With five exceptions the Sepoys refused to use 
these cartridges, and for this disobedience of orders and mutiny, (for mutiny, of 
course, it was) they Avere sent to their lines. There they remained for three 
weeks, when an order came down from General Anson at Simla that they should 
be tried by court-martial. This was accordingly done, and they were sentenced 
to ten years' imprisonment in irons and hard labour. The next day they were 
paraded, irons were placed on their legs, and they were sent to the common gaol 
among 1400 felons. This was on the Saturday. The remainder of the native 
troops of course thought that their fate would be the same, as they also must 
necessarily refuse to bite these unhappy cartridges; and on the Sunday the dis- 
turbances took place.* He hoped no gentleman in that house would be mad 
enough to suppose, however, that India could be ruled by European troops alone 
sent out from this country. It was idle to suppose that our little island, with its 
28,000,000 of inhabitants, could supply troops sufficient to keep in subjection 
181,000,000 of people. Such a notion was an utter absurdity, and would lead to 
permanent disaster and to the ruin of our Indian empire. 

2nd. — The Consequences. — Mr. Disraeli has stated the case as 
follows :— 

" We will assume, for it is probable, that in the present year we shall do nothing. 
The commencement of the next campaign will be in November. Now what I wish to 

* Not a word of this will be found in the Parliamentary papers. If Col. Sykes 
stated what was untrue why was he not contradicted? The papers are so mis- 
arranged that it is utterly impossible to trace any connection without duplicate 
copies to collate, scattered over a whole room with days of assiduity to devote to 
the loathsome task. 



9 



impress on the House and the country, is, that everything depends on the next campaign. 
All Europe and Asia will watch your efforts, and if your efforts and energies are 
adequate, commencing in November, the opjjortunity will be at your command, and you 
may save your empire and establish it with renewed force and vigour. But if in the 
next campaign you have varying fortunes, and nothing determined and decisive — if it 
is to be an affair of campaigns, and you enter into a third campaign, you will then find 
other characters on the stage, with whom you will have to contend, besides the princes 
of India." 

The President of the Board of Control has put it in this 
fashion : — 

" But what I want to impress on the House is this, — the present year is gone 
This is a campaign, and, of course, from the nature of the circumstances — from 
the surprise of the whole affair, — a most disastrous campaign. The gallant 
General had indulged in the hope that Delhi is taken. I do not indulge in that 
belief, and I think it unwise that a person of the gallant General's authority, 
unless he has strong reason for the conviction, should give weight to such a 
rumour, because I conceive that you will never get the people of this country to 
brace up their energies to the necessary point if they suppose that the next mail 
will bring intelligence of some event which will induce them to rank this affair 
with a Chinese or Persian war." 

General Hearsey writes from the spot :— - 

"If large, very large, reinforcements of British troops are not poured into 
Hindustan, across the Isthmus of Suez, i.e. via Alexandria and Cairo Eailroad, 
and immense stores of coals sent by the same railroad to Suez, to coal the 
steamers for them, so that the Queen's ships can be pushed on with the least 
possible delay, it will go hard with all of us. 

The first ' ' most disastrous campaign " of the President of the 
Board of Control is simply the defection of half an empire, where 
you have not had the opportunity of so much as fighting a battle. 
For the second campaign you are destitute of troops; you are 
sending out merely a handful, and these chiefly recruits ; you are 
sending them by the longest route, so as to afford the opportunity 
for the rebellion to confirm itself. It is, therefore, utterly impossi- 
ble, that in the course of that campaign, taking in the meantime no 
steps to regain the confidence of the native populations, you should 
have successes equal to the disasters you have incurred, so as to 
exclude the ground for Mr. Disraeli's hypothesis regarding the third 
campaign. Mr. Disraeli is not an alarmist; he has faith in the 
elasticity of the British constitution, and, in his judgment, the year 
1859, will find you engaged with other enemies than the princes of 
India ; that is to say, with certain European powers, in consequence 
of the Indian rebellion, and because you are unable to cope with that 
rebellion. The prospect, therefore, is a war with Prance, after you 
have been drained of money, men, and vessels, by a contest in 
Hindustan. In meeting this difficulty, you are ipso facto deprived 



10 



of the resources of India, as France will have there as many partizans 
as England has foes. Yon may have to meet the French on the 
banks of the Ganges, the Indus, the Godavery, and the INTerbudda, as 
well as on the St. Lawrence and the Thames. 

Simultaneously you will have the Mussulman empires of Turkey 
and Persia, subjected to the whole of the influences, internal and ex- 
ternal of a diplomatic kind, which have brought the revolt of the 
Sepoys. From the collision with France may be evolved the loss of, 
or the struggle for Malta, the Ionian Isles and Aden. Neutral vessels 
being now no longer attackable when serving your enemy, your 
fleets, on the one hand, will be unavailable for arresting the supplies, 
or even the transport of the troops of your enemies; and, on the 
other, your own mercantile navy will be instantly extinguished, be- 
cause no British merchant will risk his goods in an English bottom. 

The consequences to you are therefore, increase of taxes, certainly 
not less in the two years than two hundred millions, or £40 per 
family, which sum each of you will have to sweat to furnish, or die 
if you cannot : diminution of supply of raw materials, and of de- 
mand for goods, which, when it arrives at a certain point, must 
bring stoppage of mills, predial insurrection, without force in the 
country to put it down ; and, finally stoppage at the Bank. All 
this will follow, because on the introduction of the Enfield rifle, the 
tearing of the cartridge was not substituted for the biting of it. 
This is, however, but the immediate cause. The remote one is — 
that those who rule are certain of impunity for whatever they do. 

3rd. — The Means oe Escape. — To avert the catastrophe, what 
requires to be done, is to adjudicate upon the case, and to inform 
the people of India that that adjudication is in progress. This step 
being taken, the sending of your troops round by the Cape, instead 
of through the Isthmus of Suez, will be a wise and politic measure. 
Your question is not, however, what England ought to do, but what 
you individually ought to do, seeing that England is not capable of 
fulfilling her duties. The only answer that I can give is my own 
example. Possess yourselves of the case, and then do your best to 
make others see it. Your efforts may be fruitless ; but they may 
be successful. It is besides the only thing that you can do ; it is 
what you must do, to be either men or Christians. 

Yesterday in passing along through an almost continuous city of 
scores of miles, peopled with human beings, bound to a servitude of 
thankless toil ; this morning listening to the clatter of wooden shoes 
on the pavement, from before five in the morning, of the factory- 
bound mob, I was appalled with the reflection that the fate of these 
my fellow creatures was utterly dependent upon a single line traced 



11 



by an individual, and which they were as utterly ignorant of, and 
indifferent to, as the cows in the field, the dray-horses in the streets, 
or the very steam-engines on the rail. 

Beyond the line of chimneys, shafts, and smoke, still spreads out 
a chain of hills ; these yon have not been able to suppress. It 
brought to my mind what you were, as contrasted with what you 
are ; what have you got for all your toil ? 

That which is being done in India, and which is to bring upon 
you these penalties, can only be done by means of money. It is 
you, yourselves, who furnish this money : it is by means of your 
own sweat and toil that you are to be undone * it is by that sweat 
and toil that those crimes are perpetrated, which make your ruin a 
just and necessary vengeance. Your prototypes of Carthage have 
been branded with reluctance to part with money, while there was 
no reluctance to part with honour. That reproach cannot attach to 
you; you are no less profuse of gold than of infamy, and the sacri- 
fices that other States have made for passion or for lust, you have 
tenfold surpassed, without an evil thought or a selfish purpose. 

Having given up all control of your aggregate acts, nothing re- 
mains, but to know nothing about them, nor trouble yourselves with 
anticipating disagreeable circumstances, which you have just got to 
suffer when they come. 

This being the state of your fellow countrymen, it appears to me 
that there never was a period in the history of man in which more 
was placed within the reach of the acting hand. 

In this case I have but to repeat what I have said on each 
preceding one. A crime can be dealt with only in one fashion — 
that is by the law. Until the present year it was denied in Parliament, 
that the acts of Lord Palmerston were crimes. That character is 
now given to them, and that by the highest legal authority in the 
realm (Lord Lyndhurst). But this makes your state worse, not 
better, for you do not proceed thereon : nor is it possible to do so, 
until you have in Parliament some man or men of knowledge and 
honesty. 

The multiplication of such acts does not open any hope, for the 
result is familiarity, not indignation, or even apprehension. It was 
yesterday said to me, " I have heard you four times in the course of 
three years, announce the combination against us of all the races and 
creeds of Asia. The first time it took away the breath of the 
audience; the last time (yesterday) it fell dead on them.'" The 
first time it was a surprise, and therefore an excitement ; the last 
time, being already known, it was a matter of indifference. 

Your obedient servant, 
D. URQUHAKT. 



12 



ENCLOSURE NO. 1. 

THE BALLED CARTBIDGES AT BUM DUM. 

No. 1. 

The Inspector General of Ordnance, to the Adjutant General of the Army. 

January 28, 1857. 

Paragraph 7. — I am sorry to add that I, this morning heard that the officer 
commanding Her Majesty's 53rd Reg. in Fort William wrote to the officer in 
command of the wing of that regiment at Dum Dum, to warn a company to he 
ready to turn out at any moment, and had distributed to the men of the company 
ten rounds of balled ammunition, informing that officer that a mutiny had broken 
out at Barrackpore amongst the Sepoys. No copy of this letter was sent to 
Colonel Reid, commanding at Dum Dum, nor to Brigadier Grant, nor to myself. 
I need not enlarge on the great impropriety of such a proceeding, as, if it become 
known to the Sepoys, it will immediately create an ill feeling amongst them. 

No. 2. 

The Town Major to the Secretary to the Government of India. 

Town Major's Office, Fort William, January 30, 1857. 

Sir 

IN reply to your letter of the 29th instant, I have the honor to enclose a com- 
munication of this date, this moment received from the officer commanding Her 
Majesty's 53rd Foot. 

I am not aware of the instructions to which Major Clarke alluded in his letter 
dated the 26th inst. to the officer commanding the left wing of the regiment at 
Dum Dum, though the fact of orders having been received for a company of the 
corps to be brought into garrison from Dum Dum, was certainly communicated 
to him by me in the presence of the officer commanding the troops in garrison, 
on the evening of the above date. 

I have, &c, 

0. CAVENAGH, Lieutenant- Colonel. 

No. 3. 

Major Clarke to the Town Major. 

Sir, Fort William, January 30, 1857. 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th instant, 
with enclosure herewith returned, and in reply thereto beg to state that the letter 
forwarded by me to the officer commanding the left wing at Dum Dum, being of 
a private nature I did not keep any copy of it, but sent last night to Major Ross 
to have it returned, which shall be forwarded as soon as received. 

In the meantime, I take the liberty of enclosing a copy, as near as I can recol- 
lect, of the letter referred to. 

I have, &c, 

W. CLARKE, Major Commanding Her Majesty's 53rd Beg. 



13 



No. 4. 

Major Clarke to the Officer Commanding Left Wing, Her Majesty's 53rd Regiment, 

Dum Dum. 

Sir Fort William, January 26, 1857. 

Agreeably to instructions received, I have to request you will have a complete 
Company ready to be under arms all night, each man provided with ten rounds of 
ammunition (balled), and to act as further instructions may be given, disturbance 
having broken out amongst the troops at Barrackpore. 

The main-guard to be also increased by one serjeant and ten men. 

I have, &c, 

W. CLARKE, Major Commanding Her 
Majesty's 53rd Regiment. 

No. 5. 

The Secretary to the Government of India to the Town Major. 
Sir, Fort William, January 30, 1857. 

With reference to your letter of this date, forwarding a communication from 
Major Clarke commanding Her Majesty's 53rd Reg. inclosing a copy of a letter 
sent by him on the 26th inst., to the officer commanding the left wing of the Reg. 
at Dum Dum, I am desired by the Governor-General in Council, to request that 
you will call upon Major Clarke to explain what the instructions were to which 
he alludes in that letter, and from whom they were received. 

I am, &c, 

R. S. H. BIRCH, Colonel. 

No. 6. 

Major Clarke to the Town Major. 

Fort William, February 2nd, 1857. 
Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 31st 
ultimo, with enclosure, and in reply beg to state for your information, that the 
instructions alluded to in my private correspondence to Major Ross, commanding 
left wing 53rd Regiment, would, I fully supposed have been considered by him 
strictly in that light. 

With reference to the increase of guards directed by me at Dum Dum I would 
beg to explain that I meant the regimental main-guard of the wing, having no 
authority to interfere with those of the station. I beg to return your enclosure. 

W. CLARKE, Major Commanding Her Majesty's 53rd Regiment. 

No. 7. 

The Secretary to the Government of India to the Town Major. 

Fort William, February 2nd, 1857. 
Sir, — In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of this date, with an original 
one from Major Clarke, commanding Her Majesty's 53rd Foot also of this date, 
I am directed to observe that the latter does not contain a statement of what the 
instructions were, which he states himself to have received when he wrote to the 
Officer commanding the wing of that corps at Dum Dum, nor from whom they 
were received; and to request that you will have the goodness to call upon 
Major Clarke to furnish without delay, for the information of Government, a 
direct and explicit answer to the reference made to him. 

I am, &c, 

R. S. H. BIRCH, Colonel. 



14 

No. 8. 

Major Clarke to the Town Major. 

Fort William, February 4th, 1857. 
Sir,— I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 3rd instant, 
with enclosure, and in reply beg to state that I received the instructions to increase 
the guards in Fort William, and have a complete Company ready to turn out 
at a moment's warning FROM YOU ; and I consequently wrote to Major Eoss, 
commanding left wing, 53rd Regiment at Dum Dum, with similar instructions, 
marked " Private." 

W. CLARKE, Major, Commanding Her Majesty's 53rd Regiment. 



ENCLOSURE No. 2. 

THE OUDE INSLTRBECTION. 

No. 1. 

The Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Oude to the Secretary to the 
Government of India. 

Luc know, May 4th, 1857. 
Sir, — I am directed to report, for the information of the Governor- General in 
Council, that, on the 2nd instant, the 7th Oude Regiment, stationed seven miles 
from the Lucknow cantonments, refused to bite the cartridge when ordered by its 
own officers, and again by the Brigadier. 

No. 2. 

Minute by the Governor-General, May 10th, 1857. 
This despatch from the Chief Commissioner in Oude, reports the outbreak of a 
mutinous spirit in the 7th regiment of the Oude Irregular Infantry, and their 
refusal to use the cartridges furnished to them. 

It appears that the revised instructions for the platoon exercise, by which the 
biting of the cartridge is dispensed with, had not come into operation at 
Lucknow when the event took place. Explanation op this should be asked. 

No. 3. 

Minute of Major-General Low, May 10th, 1857. 
The report from the Secretary to the Chief Commissioner in Oude, dated the 
4th instant, does not describe, so distinctly as one could wish, all that actually 
occurred previous to the 3rd inst., and since ; I cannot say, with much precision, 
all that ought, in my opinion, to be done by orders of the Government, especially 
as it appears to me that probably the main body of this regiment, in refusing to 
bite the cartridges, did so refuse, not from any feeling of disloyalty or disaffection 
towards the Government or their officers, but from an unfeigned and sincere dread, 
owing to their belief in the late rumours aboutthe construction of those cartridges, that the 
act of biting them would involve a serious injury to their caste, and to their future 
respectability of character. In short, that if they were to bite these cartridges, 
they would be guilty of a heinous sin in a religious point of view. 



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No. 4. 

Minute by Mr. Grant, May \\t\ 1857. 

These men, taken from the .late Oude army, can have learned as yet little of 
the yi^our of British discipline; and although there can he no doubt, that the 
cartridges which they refused to bite were not the new cartridges for the Enfield 
musket, which, by reason of the very culpable conduct of the Ordnance department, 
have caused all this excitement; yet it may be presumed, that they were the first 
cartridges that these men were ever required to bite in their lives. Also, there is no 
saying what extreme mismanagement there may have been on the part of the com- 
mandant and officers in the origin of the affair; the mere fact of making cartridge- 
biting A POINT AFTER IT HAD BEEN PURPOSELY DROPPED FROM THE AUTHO- 
RIZED system of drill, merely for rifle practice, is a presumption for any 
imaginable degree of perverse management. 

No. 5. 

The Secretary to the Government of India to the Chief Commissioner of Oude. 

May 13, 1857. 

4. — The Governor- General in Council feels it necessary that he should fully 
understand how the refusal on the 2nd inst. to bite the cartridges was manifested; 
what had passed previously on the subject, and what were the circumstances 
which led to the refusal ; how the symptoms of disaffection, said to have been 
shown on the 3rd inst. appeared; whether in such a manner as to inplicate the 
whole regiment or a portion only ; and if the latter, how many individuals. 

5. — Again, it is stated that on the 4th inst., the regiment was reported to the 
Brigadier to be in a state of mutiny. It does not appear upon what circum- 
stances the report was founded ; for on the same evening, the regiment was found 
perfectly quiet, obeyed the order given to form line, and expressed contrition; 
explanation on this point is required. 

8. — A book, containing the practice with rifles, recently printed by order of 
Government, is understood to have been despatched to the regiments of Oude Local 
Infantry, on or about the 14th ult. In that book it is directed that the cartridge 
shall be torn open, and no allusion is made to the old practice of biting it. The 
Governor- General in Council wishes to know when that book was received by the 
corps at Lucknow. 

[The despatch from Lucknow of the 4th was answered on the 
10th. There was a telegraph. The reply to this question if sent 
on the 10th by telegraph could have been received on the 16th May, 
in writing. The documents come down to the 9th June, and 
contain, through 170 folio pages, not a line referring to the inquiries 
of the Governor-General.] 



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